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Thursday, 5 June 2014

Cristina Henriquez chat

We Sat Down For a Chat...with Cristina Henriquez

The Book
of Unknown Americans is a very tender immigration story. I loved the coming of
age thread and the inclusion of chapters from other immigrants who lived in the
building. I also really admire the UK cover image, and for me it forms part of
the novel's narrative. It’s author, Cristina Henriquez, chats to us about it.

WSD: In the Acknowledgments for The Book of Unknown
Americans, you thank your mom for providing the story that set your novel in
motion. What was that story?

Cristina
Henriquez: My mother is a translator for the school district where she lives,
so she works with a lot of immigrant families and she specializes in working
with families whose children have special needs. She often talks to me about
them and what they’re going through. One of the families she told me about was
struggling to take care of their daughter who had had an illness since birth, and
I found myself thinking about them a lot, about what it’s like to be a parent
where the only thing that matters to you is making sure your child is okay, about
the challenges of doing that in a place where you don’t know the language nor
any of the customs, where it’s difficult even to figure out how to take a bus
to a school meeting, and all of that somehow gave rise to the book.

WSD: In your novel, food is frequently used to signify
poverty but also home (as well as 'not home'). What things conjure up
images, or thoughts, of home for you?

Cristina
Henriquez: That’s an interesting question. I’m not exactly sure what home is
for me. When I was growing up, my family and I moved every few years, and even
after I left for college and was on my own, and then when I was with my
now-husband, I continued that pattern. I’ve lived in enough places that it’s
difficult to think of any one of them as home. The older I get, the more I start
thinking that home isn’t actually physical or geographical at all. It’s
emotional, a sense of belonging, a feeling of ease and of connection. So for
me, when someone asks me about my home now, I think not about a place but about
people, the people I love best, the people I feel most myself around, which are
my husband and children. Anything that reminds me of them – soccer, Curious
George, chocolate milk boxes – conjures thoughts of home.

WSD: Why does Maribel not have a chapter in her voice?

Cristina
Henriquez: I don’t have a good answer for that. Maybe I should have given her
one. My idea was to give every apartment unit one representative chapter, and
then beyond that I chose Mayor and Alma to be the primary narrators. Celia,
Mayor’s mother, doesn’t have her own chapter, either. Her husband, Rafael is
the voice for their family. For the Riveras, since Alma was already spoken for,
either Maribel or Arturo could have narrated the family’s one chapter and
considering how the plot unfolds, my instinct was to give Arturo the last word.
Even without hearing from her directly, hopefully readers finish the novel with
the sense that Maribel has gotten stronger by the end, the sense that she will
go on and get even stronger still.

WSD: Yes,
I think the novel gives a very strong sense of Maribel and her growth.